NOT QUITE A LEGEND – 007 LEGENDS review

007 LEGENDS cover artwork - now you
can judge a game by its cover!

Note: for an unknown game glitch I’m stuck on a part of the MOONRAKER mission where I have to hack a WiFi port, but for some reason, every time I press “E” on my PC, the thing doesn’t works. I don’t even have the “Press E To Hack” disclaimer. I’ll review the game until this point.

While SKYFALL was a true 50^th Bond anniversary celebration, 007 LEGENDS, the latest James Bond game by Activision after QUANTUM OF SOLACE (2008), GOLDENEYE 007 (2010), BLOOD STONE (2010) and GOLDENEYE 007: RELOADED (2011), is quite a disappointment.

Since EA Games lost the Bond license by 2007, Activision handled the Bond franchise with the task of bringing Bond to next-gen consoles with bad results, except for the GOLDENEYE 007 remakes and QUANTUM OF SOLACE. Besides making games for PC, which I think was something really good, their games fail to capture the essence of “being Bond”, turning the gameplay into a CALL OF DUTY (I’ve barely played a version of this game before, so here I’m posting what other people say) first person shooter style more that the Bond feeling EA could provide us – you can notice how boring was driving the gadget-less Aston Martin DB5 & Vanquish in BLOOD STONE in opposition to EA’s EVERYTHING OR NOTHING or NIGHTFIRE, where the cars kept their original gadgets. And not to mention the “Bond moment” bonus that gave you rewards for making typical 007 actions.

Now, back to the game: a first person shooter in the CALL OF DUTY style, so they say, where you play five chapters based on six classic Bond films, one for each actor but this time contemporized to the 21^st century with Daniel Craig as 007 (tough he didn’t provide the voice talent, but the actor sounds like him a lot). After “taking the bloody shot” in the game’s opening based on SKYFALL, Bond falls to the water and remembers his “past”: through a series of flashback we then start with GOLDFINGER, who has a modern-look like Auric Enterprises opposed to the 1964 film version. All you do here is practically what you’ll do in the following missions: shooting a few goons, search for fingerprints and evidence, and hacking ports with your Sony Xperia cellphone. Then the villain discovers you and you get away, only to be recaptured and fighting again until you finish with a PUNCH-OUT fighting game style and you win!

The ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE ski chase.
More than boring, annoying!

Then it’s the turn of ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE and the ski chase: can we jump and make great stunts? Can we punch adversaries away or jump over precipices? No. All we gotta do is skiing down the alps, avoiding trees, shooting goons in snowmobile and trying to reach Tracy who is escaping in a snowmobile: the one that was expected to be the greatest part of the game turned out to be one of the most annoying –and boring- parts of the game.

We follow on with LICENCE TO KILL and DIE ANOTHER DAY, where you get to drive a jeep truck (replacing the tankers from the 1989 film) and the Aston Martin DBS (replacing the film’s Vanquish). The driving missions are probably the most entertaining parts of the game, kind of a reward of being trying to stealthly infiltrate into the villains HQ and getting discovered and shot by the hundereds and hundereds of enemies and failing the mission (something made in a much more interesting way in Rare’s GOLDENEYE 007 for Nintendo 64). But guess what? The driving missions are too short, too easy, and you use few (and harmless) gadgets.

The DIE ANOTHER DAY car chase, one of
 the few game positive-ish points

Then everything ends on MOONRAKER, where you meet Holly Goodhead who had a painful haircut to make you forget (or ask yourself why) they took out Lois Chiles likeness from the game. And there’s not only Dr Goodhead’s voice to annoy you, you got drone machines everywhere and lots of corridors that will drive you absolutely mad (mind you, you might have to do the same every time you get killed thanks to the crappiest “checkpoint” style). The only interesting part here is escaping from the shuttle ignition fire as seen in the 1979 movie starring Roger Moore.

Oh, you can also download a SKYFALL free mission if you still want to get more of this game. But no, it’s way too complicated. I haven’t even finished MOONRAKER, so there you go.

As I write this words I’ve learnt that Activision took out their Bond games from the Steam server and their official site. Does that means they’re out of Bondage? Well, as old Sean said in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, “I sincerely hope so.”

4/10

Nicolás Suszczyk.
Editor, THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER